Special Collections
Blindness and Visual Impairment Special Collection
Description: A collection featuring biographies, memoirs, fiction and non-fiction by and about members of the blind community. #disability
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Blindness
by Daniel Mendelsohn and Henry GreenHenry Green's first novel, and the book that began his career as a master of British modernism.
Blindness—Henry Green’s first novel, begun while he was still at Eton and finished before he left university—is the story of John Haye, a young student with literary airs. It starts with an excerpt from his diary, brimming with excitement and affectation and curiosity about life and literature.
Then a freak accident robs John of his sight, plunging him into despair. Forced to live with his high-handed, horsey stepmother in the country, John begins a weird dalliance with a girl named Joan, leading to a new determination.
Blindness is the curse of youth and inexperience and love and ambition, but blindness, John will discover, can also be the source of vision.
Blindness Should Not Be a Burden
by Archie R. SilagoArchie Silago is a member of the Navajo Nation. Archie was born in 1951 at Crownpoint, New Mexico. At 17, a detached retina left him blind in his right eye; five years later he suffered the same fate in his left eye and became completely blind.
Eventually, he decided to attend college. He received his Bachelor s Degree in Psychology from New Mexico State University, completed a Master s Degree in Counseling at Western New Mexico University and became a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC). Today he is pursuing his PhD in Psychology. This memoir is intended to inspire and motivate other individuals with disabilities to help themselves to move forward with life.
Blind Rage
by Georgina KleegeThe author writes letters to the late Helen Keller to explore different aspects of her life.
Blind Rage
by Georgina KleegeAs a young blind girl, Georgina Kleege repeatedly heard the refrain, “Why can’t you be more like Helen Keller?” Kleege’s resentment culminates in her book Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller, an ingenious examination of the life of this renowned international figure using 21st-century sensibilities.
Kleege’s absorption with Keller originated as an angry response to the ideal of a secular saint, which no real blind or deaf person could ever emulate. However, her investigation into the genuine person revealed that a much more complex set of characters and circumstances shaped Keller’s life.
Blind Rage employs an adroit form of creative nonfiction to review the critical junctures in Keller’s life. The simple facts about Helen Keller are well-known: how Anne Sullivan taught her deaf-blind pupil to communicate and learn; her impressive career as a Radcliffe graduate and author; her countless public appearances in various venues, from cinema to vaudeville, to campaigns for the American Foundation for the Blind. But Kleege delves below the surface to question the perfection of this image.
Through the device of her letters, she challenges Keller to reveal her actual emotions, the real nature of her long relationship with Sullivan, with Sullivan’s husband, and her brief engagement to Peter Fagan.
Kleege’s imaginative dramatization, distinguished by her depiction of Keller’s command of abstract sensations, gradually shifts in perspective from anger to admiration.
Blind Rage criticizes the Helen Keller myth for prolonging an unrealistic model for blind people, yet it appreciates the individual who found a practical way to live despite the restrictions of her myth.
Blind Workers against Charity
by Matthias ReissThe National League of the Blind was the first radical self-represented group of visually impaired people in Britain, with branches in every part of the United Kingdom. Founded in 1893, it registered as a trade union in 1899 and still exists today as part of the trade union 'community'.
From the very beginning, the League campaigned vehemently to make the state solely responsible for providing training, employment and assistance for the visually impaired as a right. It also fought for the abolition of all charitable aid for blind people and better wages and working conditions in workshops, as well as other issues such as travel or tax concessions.
This book is the first critical study on this unique social movement organisation. It explores the League's multifaceted character, its campaign for 'direct state aid,' its relationship with the trade union movement and the Labour Party, and its impact on the British welfare state.
The Book of Chameleons
by Jose Eduardo Agualusa and Daniel HahnFélix Ventura trades in an unusual commodity; he is a dealer in memories, clandestinely selling new pasts to people whose futures are secure and who lack only a good lineage to complete their lives. In this completely original murder mystery, where people are not who they seem and the briefest of connections leads to the forging of entirely new histories, a bookish albino, a beautiful woman, a mysterious foreigner, and a witty talking lizard come together to discover the truth of their lives. Set in Angola, Agualusa's tale darts from tormented past to dream-filled present with a lightness that belies the savage history of a country in which many have something to forget -- and to hide. A brilliant American debut by one of the most lauded writers in the Portuguese-speaking world, this is a beautifully written and always surprising tale of race, truth, and the transformative power of creativity.
The Book of Memory
by Petina GappahThe story that you have asked me to tell you does not begin with the pitiful ugliness of Lloyd's death. It begins on a long-ago day in August when the sun seared my blistered face and I was nine years old and my father and mother sold me to a strange man.Memory, the narrator of Petina Gappah's The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, after being sentenced for murder. As part of her appeal, her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, and Memory is, both literally and metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? And did everything happen exactly as she remembers?Moving between the townships of the poor and the suburbs of the rich, and between past and present, the 2009 Guardian First Book Award-winning writer Petina Gappah weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate, and the treachery of memory.
Borderlands of Blindness (Disability in Society Series)
by Beth OmanskyBeth Omansky explores the lives of people with legal blindness to show how society responds to those who don't fit neatly into the disabled/nondisabled binary. Probing the experience of education, rehabilitation, and work, as well as the more intimate spheres of religion, family, and romantic relationships, her frank and theoretically sophisticated portrait of the legally blind experience offers an insight into our understanding of the social construction of disability.
Breaking Barriers
by Peter AltschulFor some unknown reason, Peter Altschul was born totally blind. He grew up in a working-class town where, with the help of his persistent mother, he broke through barrier after barrier, determined to live a full life.
After attending a private school that initially turned him away--simply because he was blind--Peter details how he discovered his gift for music, eventually playing percussion in the orchestra, marching band, and jazz ensemble at Princeton University.
But it was only after Peter graduated from college that it became evident he would need a guide dog. Heidi, a Weimaraner with a large repertoire of barks, howls, and grunts, would assist Peter for the next eight years through the halls of New England Conservatory, where he eventually obtained a master's degree in music composition.
Peter relays how he blazed a unique professional trail while simultaneously overcoming obstacles; managed his uneasy relationship with music; and embraced his unexpected entrance into an unfamiliar and romantic world.
He also provides an unforgettable glimpse into the wonderful ways his five guide dogs supported him on his journey from urban bachelorhood to the light of love.
Breaking Barriers shares a compelling account of one man's journey through life as he and each of his specially trained dogs learned to trust each other, ultimately melding into a smooth working team that tackled the world-together.
Breaking the Bonds of Blindness
by Mark Jacoby and Bill DriverHad he stayed in public school, he would have been in ninth grade, but without sight, he had to go to the school for the blind, where he found himself in class with kindergarteners. He had to learn braille--harder for him since his arms were longer and the dot messages had longer paths to travel--and he couldn't get out of eighth grade until he got those reading skills. Always the optimist, Bill graduated and had a lot of fun along the way. Bill and his family encountered plenty of stumbling blocks, but with humor, love, and ingenuity, they persevered, enjoying life and each other. This book is humorous, inspiring,and real--a fascinating and enjoyable autobiography.
A Brush With Darkness
by Lisa FittipaldiWhen Lisa Fittipaldi went blind at the age of forty-seven, she descended into a freefall of anger and denial that lasted for two years. In this moving memoir, she paints a vivid picture of the perceptual and emotional darkness that accompanied her vision loss, and her arduous journey back into the sighted world through mastery of the principles of art and color.
Business Owners Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
by Deborah KendrickThe second title in the exciting Jobs That Matter series written by an award-winning blind journalist, Business Owners Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired demonstrates the wide range of careers and talents that can be pursued by persons with visual impairments. Each profile features a successful individual who has accomplished his or her dream of business ownership and who shares important insights. From a lawyer and an accountant to a florist and a gourmet cook, the range of engaging stories told will inspire young adults with visual impairments and the parents, teachers, and counselors who advise them.
By Faith, Not By Sight
by Scott Macintyre and Jennifer SchuchmannA moving story of hope, faith, persistence and the power of dreams. In By Faith, Not by Sight, American Idol's first ever disabled finalist Scott MacIntyre shares his inspiring story of being a musical and academic prodigy who prevails over life-threatening obstacles to become a pop sensation. When stage four renal failure tries to stop his dream of studying classical piano in London, Scott bravely moves forward and finds new friendships and freedom despite his blindness. Then when his kidney transplant, a painful recovery, and his sister's kidney transplant all attempt to sideline him once more, he perseveres and makes it to the top ten finale of American Idol. Scott defies all odds: having to dance on stage, always having a sighted guide with him, and still singing with sound monitors that quit working. Despite so many obstacles, he goes on tour with the Idol cast, records an album (Heartstrings), and finds love for the first time. Through an unwavering faith in God and himself, Scott teaches all of us that our dreams are possible regardless of our circumstances. Though he can't see the world around him, he has always been able to see his dreams and pursues them fearlessly.
Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
by Heather TilleyIn this innovative and important study, Heather Tilley examines the huge shifts that took place in the experience and conceptualisation of blindness during the nineteenth century, and demonstrates how new writing technologies for blind people had transformative effects on literary culture.
Considering the ways in which visually-impaired people used textual means to shape their own identities, the book argues that blindness was also a significant trope through which writers reflected on the act of crafting literary form.
Supported by an illuminating range of archival material (including unpublished letters from Wordsworth's circle, early ophthalmologic texts, embossed books, and autobiographies) this is a rich account of blind people's experience, and reveals the close, and often surprising personal engagement that canonical writers had with visual impairment.
Drawing on the insights of disability studies and cultural phenomenology, Tilley highlights the importance of attending to embodied experience in the production and consumption of texts.
Candle in the Window
by Christina DoddLady Saura of Roget lives a lonely life of servitude-her fortune controlled by her cruel, unscrupulous stepfather. Yet it is she who has been called upon to brighten the days of Sir William of Miraval, a proud and noble knight who once swore to live or perish by the sword . . . until his world was engulfed in agonizing darkness. Summoned to Sir William's castle, the raven-haired innocent is soon overcome by desire and love for the magnificent, golden warrior who has quickly laid siege to her heart. But there is grave danger awaiting them both just beyond the castle walls . . . and a dear and deadly price to be paid for surrendering to a fiery, all-consuming love.
Carmella's Quest
by Carmella BroomeThe author, who is blind, describes her years at North Greenville College.
Carry On
by Lisa FennIn the spirit of The Blind Side and Friday Night Lights comes a tender and profoundly moving memoir about an ESPN producer's unexpected relationship with two disabled wrestlers from inner city Cleveland, and how these bonds--blossoming, ultimately, into a most unorthodox family--would transform their lives.
When award-winning ESPN producer Lisa Fenn returned to her hometown for a story about two wrestlers at one of Cleveland's toughest public high schools, she had no idea that the trip would change her life. Both young men were disadvantaged students with significant physical disabilities. Dartanyon Crockett was legally blind as a result of Leber's disease; Leroy Sutton lost both his legs at eleven, when he was run over by a train. Brought together by wrestling, they had developed a brother-like bond as they worked to overcome their disabilities. After forming a profound connection with Dartanyon and Leroy, Fenn realized she couldn't just walk away when filming ended; these boys had had to overcome the odds too many times. Instead, Fenn dedicated herself to ensuring their success long after the reporting was finished and the story aired--and an unlikely family of three was formed. The years ahead would be fraught with complex challenges, but Fenn stayed with the boys every step of the way--teaching them essential life skills, helping them heal old wounds and traumatic pasts, and providing the first steady and consistent support system they'd ever had.This powerful memoir is one of love, hope, faith, and strength--a story about an unusual family and the courage to carry on, even in the most extraordinary circumstances.
Character Driven
by Derek Fisher and Gary BrozekThe Three Time NBA Champion and starting point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers shares his Christian faith and inspirational values for success and happiness.Since his inaugural season with the NBA in 1996, Derek Fisher has had a dramatic impact on the great success of the Lakers. Playing alongside legendary players like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and Lamar Odom, Fisher has held his position at point guard, participating in some of the most dramatic post-season games and moments in recent memory.In 2007 Derek Fisher and his wife Candace’s lives were upturned by news that their eleven-month-old daughter, Tatum, had been diagnosed with a degenerative and rare form of eye cancer called retinoblastoma. Although his team, the Utah Jazz, was in the midst of a heated playoff series, Fisher immediately put his family first to be with his daughter at the time of her required emergency surgery and chemotherapy. Nominated the best moment in the 2007 ESPY Awards, Derek was able to make a dramatic late entrance and performance in the fourth quarter of game 2 to help the Jazz to an emotional victory. Following the season, Fisher asked the Jazz to release him of his contract so he could devote his energies to fighting his daughter’s retinoblastoma without knowing if he would ever play basketball again. Fisher officially rejoined the Lakers, resuming his role as point guard, and provided a veteran influence alongside Kobe Bryant to a relatively young Lakers squad. In his compelling new book, Fisher shares the Christian values that have guided him on the court and off. With anecdotes from his personal and professional life, Fisher offers lessons learned along the way. Drawing on the power of faith, he shows how anyone can play for a successful team: whether that team is family, community, or just happens to be one in the NBA.
C'mon Papa
by Ryan KnightonRyan Knighton's humorous and perceptive tales of fatherhood take us inside an unusual new family, one bound by its father's particular darkness and light.
C'mon Papa is Ryan Knighton's heartbreaking and hilarious voyage through the first year of fatherhood. Becoming a father is a stressful, daunting rite of passage to be sure, but for a blind father, the fears are unimaginably heightened. Ryan will have to find novel ways to adapt to nearly every aspect of parenting: the most basic skills are nearly impossible to contemplate, let alone master. And how will Ryan get to know this pre-verbal bundle of coos and burps when he can't see her smile, or look into her eyes for hints of the person to come? But this is no pity party, and Ryan has no time for sentimentality.
Tackling these hurdles with grace and humour, Ryan is determined to do his part -- and this is where the fun starts. From holding his daughter as she wails into the night to their first nerve-wracking walk to the cafe, no activity between father and daughter is without its pitfalls. In his struggle to "see" Tess, Ryan reimagines the relationship between father and child during that first chaotic year.
Cockeyed
by Ryan KnightonThis irreverent, tragicomic, politically incorrect, astoundingly articulate memoir about going blind?and growing up?illuminates not just the author's reality, but the reader's.
Come, Let Me Guide You
by Susan KriegerCome, Let Me Guide You explores the intimate communication between author Susan Krieger and her guide dog Teela over the ten-year span of their working life together.
This is a book about being led by a dog to new places in the world and new places in the self, a book about facing life's challenges outwardly and within, and about reading those clues--those deeply felt signals--that can help guide the way. It is also, more broadly, about the importance of intimate connection in human-animal relationships, academic work, and personal life. In her previous book, Traveling Blind: Adventures in Vision with a Guide Dog by My Side, Krieger focused on her first two years with Teela, her lively Golden Retriever-Yellow Labrador.
Come, Let Me Guide You continues the narrative, beginning at the moment the author must confront Teela's retirement and then reflecting on the entire span of their relationship. These emotionally moving stories offer the reader personal entrée into a life of increasing pleasure and insight as Krieger describes how her relationship with her guide dog has had far-reaching effects, not only on her abilities to navigate the world while blind, but also on her writing and teaching, her ability to face loss, and her sense of self. Come, Let Me Guide You is an invaluable contribution to the literature on human-animal communication and on the guide-dog-human experience, as well as to disability and feminist ethnographic studies. It shows how a relationship with a guide dog is unique among bonds, for it rests upon highly regulated connections yet touches deep emotional chords.
For Krieger, those chords have resulted in these memorable stories, often humorous and playful, always instructive, and generative of broader insight.
The Community of the Blind
by Yoon Hough KimDr. Kim has investigated the validity of the widely-held view that while there are a large number of blind persons whose social lives are centered in the mainstream, that is with sighted persons, there are an equally large number of blind persons whose social lives are restricted mainly to other blind persons.
The Conquest of Blindness
by Henry Randolph LatimerThe term "Conquest of Blindness" is taken to include any preventive, remedial, educational, rehabilitating, or relief phase of work pertaining to the handicap of blindness.
The primary aim of the volume is to lift work for the conquest of blindness out of the miasma of alms and asylums into the more wholesome atmosphere of social adjustment.
Other aims of the volume are to serve as a supplementary text for the use of the profession, and as an incentive to the chance reader to delve more deeply into the subject, and to present as modestly as may be the autobiography of one blind person who has contributed in small measure toward the conquest of blindness.
Craig Macfarlane Hasn't Heard Of You Either!
by Craig MacfarlaneIn the pages of this book Craig MacFarlane tells a remarkable story and shares the incredible lessons his experience taught him. Craig takes the amazing story of his success and uses it as a backdrop to demonstrate the framework that has led to a successful, enviable life.
To appreciate this book, you need to understand that Craig MacFarlane is totally blind.
The victim of a horrible tragedy at the age of two that cost him his eyesight, Craig has forged an awesome life. Treating his total loss of eyesight as nothing more than a minor inconvenience, Craig proceeded to become the World's Most Celebrated Totally Blind Athlete, using his athletic opportunities as the vehicle to establish himself in the "sighted" world and as the launching pad for an impressive 30 year career in the world of business. In his trademark modest and self-effacing style, Craig has written an autobiography that isn't so much about him as it is about you.
The stories of Craig's accomplishments, which include winning more than 100 gold medals (the majority against sighted competition) to winning multiple National Championships in both Canada and the United States, to representing Canada and the United States and winning on the World stage, to winning the U. S. National Blind Snow Skiing Championship to Water Ski Jumping at Cypress Gardens to shooting 91 in golf, only serve as the backdrop for a greater message as Craig shares the lessons he learned and how he applied them.
Those lessons, those principles, became the foundation that led to his noteworthy career as an internationally renowned Keynote Inspirational Speaker. From the big stage of the Republican National Convention to innumerable international Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 business conferences and conventions to almost 3,000 high schools on three continents, Craig has demonstrated the principles he will challenge you to incorporate into your life. Success, of course, is a highly personal thing and to Craig that also includes being the best husband, father and friend he can be.
You will quickly realize that the same principles and lessons that lead to business success also lead to a great life and Craig's world personifies this message every day. The stories in this book will enthrall you. They will grip you. They will entertain you. They will tug at your heartstrings and make you laugh while holding you on the edge of your seat. Even more, they will test you. The stories are real, they are dramatic, they are genuine. The lessons they teach are powerful, significant and potentially life changing, for those who take them seriously. Prepare to be entertained and enlightened as you enjoy this awesome experience. You are about to see the principles of success in a whole new light. You will find yourself inspired to raise the bar in your life and do more with the opportunities in front of you with greater appreciation of what you already have. Don't study this book, enjoy it.
Immerse yourself in the spirit of Craig's message and he will truly elevate your senses, taking you from having eyesight to having vision. Ultimately, Craig's message will teach you how to benefit from the profound wisdom that comes from true self awareness, or as he calls, Inner Vision.
Crashing Through
by Robert KursonIn his critically acclaimed bestsellerShadow Divers, Robert Kurson explored the depths of history, friendship, and compulsion. Now Kurson returns with another thrilling adventure–the stunning true story of one man’s heroic odyssey from blindness into sight. Mike May spent his life crashing through. Blinded at age three, he defied expectations by breaking world records in downhill speed skiing, joining the CIA, and becoming a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and family man. He had never yearned for...